WARD,] THE TRIASSIO FLORA. 221 
that some of the supposed buds when thus enlarged simulate very 
closely the reproductive organs of certain Cretaceous cycadean trunks. 
This treatment further shows that the scars or scales point toward the 
large end, which would be singular for a cone, whatever the condi- 
tions of compression to which it might have been subjected. It would 
seem, therefore, that the whole question must be left for the present in 
abeyance, but there is at least no evidence of these beds representing 
the early Trias.' 
It will therefore be necessary to treat the American Trias as a geo- 
logical unit, and to confine the classification to the several geographical 
areas in which its flora has been developed. 
There is no fact more commonly remarked by. paleontologists than 
that of the defectiveness of the geological record in Mesozoic time, 
especially as regards fossil plants. Of the three divisions or systems 
of the Mesozoic, the defectiveness of this record is most apparent in 
the earliest or lowest, viz, the Trias. In Europe the lower member 
of the Trias, viz, the Buntersandstein, contains fossil. plants at some 
points, notably in Alsatia, on the slopes of the Vosges, and in the 
vicinity of Strasburg. The second or middle member, viz, the 
-Muschelkalk, is also represented by a few plant remains at Recoaro, 
in Italy, and perhaps at a few other points. The last member, viz, 
the Keuper, is very well represented at many different localities on 
the Continent. The Triassic fossil plants are most numerous of all in 
the extreme upper member or transition beds, viz, the Rhetic, espe- 
cially in the Kingdom of Bavaria, province of Franconia, near Baireuth, 
and in South Sweden (Scania). 
The attempt to correlate the Trias of America with any other of 
these three series of the European Trias has thus far been more or 
less unsuccessful, but it is remarkable that all the fossil plants that 
have ever been discovered in American strata within the proper limits 
of the Trias not only appear to belong to nearly the same horizon, but 
also have their nearest affinities with those found in the very upper- 
most of the four different members which have been enumerated. 
It is quite immaterial whether we denominate this member the upper 
Keuper or call it the Rhetic. 
The principal plant-bearing deposits which have been assigned to 
the Trias in America occur in the Connecticut Valley, in the vicinity. 
of Richmond, Virginia, and in North Carolina. In the West there are 
large tracts of country which have been assigned to the Trias and which 
probably belong to that system, and many eminent geologists, includ- 
ing Dr. J. S. Newberry, have been disposed to identify this Western 
formation with that of the eastern part of the country. These deposits 
are most extensive in New Mexico and Arizona, but are perhaps to be 
found in Indian Territory and adjacent parts of Texas. They also 
1g§ee Dana, Manual of Geology, 4th ed., 1895, p. 741. 
